"I have spent a lot of my extracurricular life working in education," said William Rea. "So, I thought it would be appropriate to carry on this work through a fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation."
William Rea's "extracurricular" activities include serving for 16 years on the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education -- seven years as president -- and 16 years on the state Board of Education. For nearly 30 years, he served on the University of Pittsburgh’s Board of Trustees, where he was chair for 11 years. He was also a member of the Ellis School board, an independent girls' school in Pittsburgh's Shadyside neighborhood. He died in 2006.
In 1989, Rea and his wife, Ingrid, established the Ingrid and William Rea Higher Education Fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation to support special programs in higher education, including scholarships and fellowships, especially for minority students.
The fund has provided grants every year to NEED, a nonprofit college access program that focuses on helping underserved youth, to support higher education for Black students.
“I always believed that if people of limited means have an opportunity to go through college, they can improve their circumstances much quicker," said Rea. "We wanted to help make this occur."
Ingrid was a trustee of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, The Carnegie Institute, Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She helped found the Women’s Committee of Carnegie Museum of Art. Ingrid spent 27 years as the chairwoman of the Powdermill Advisory Committee, the governing body of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s field station at Powdermill Nature Reserve in Westmoreland County. The potential of Powdermill as a site to teach children about environmental research and conservation was central to her passion for the area.
Ingrid was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania by the state in 1974 for her community service and was also a board member of Children’s Hospital. She died in 2003.
Type of Fund
- Designated